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Raffaele Cecco (game designer)
Raffaele Cecco (Born in 10 May 1967) is a English independent games developer, game designer and programmer who created numerous video games since 1984. Cecco is most famous for games such as Cybernoid, Exolon and First Samurai which he developed during the 1980s and '90s. Due to the popularity of Cecco’s video games he was asked to write a monthly diary for CRASH magazine, the first installment being 15th of April 1988. The diary documented the development of Stormlord. He first started programming on a ZX81 and his first release was Cop-Out, published by Mikro-Gen in 1986. Biography Raffaele Cecco was born in 1967 in the Manor House area of North London to an Italian father and French mother. He attended Woodberry Down Junior School and Somerset Comprehensive School in Tottenham, London. Cecco developed an interest in video games during his early teens after receiving a black-and-white Binatone 'Video Olympics' console which featured classics such as Pong. The arrival of the Atari VCS console furthered Cecco's interest in video games, and the eventual purchase of a Sinclair ZX81 in 1981 introduced him to programming, a skill which he developed over the next few years. In 1984, whilst studying for A-Levels, Cecco sent a demo of his work to Mikro-Gen, a small Surrey based video games developer. Mikro-Gen offered Cecco his first job as a video games programmer for £4000 PA. After accepting the post, Cecco left his A-Level studies to begin employment. At Mikro-Gen, Cecco worked with Christopher Hinsley, David Perry, Nicholas Jones and David Shea. Senior programmer Christopher Hinsley was a major influence on all the programmers at Mikro-Gen and the atmosphere was highly conducive to pushing creative and technical boundaries. Cecco learnt the ropes quickly and produced his first game, Equinox. In 1986, Cecco left Mikro-Gen to work on a freelance basis. This proved to be a prolific time during which titles such as Exolon, Cybernoid and Stormlord were produced for Hewson Consultants, a video games publisher based in Oxford. He continued freelancing for Hewson until 1987. Probe Software also commissioned him to produce the ZX Spectrum version of Solomon’s Key during this time. Due to the popularity of Cecco’s video games, he was asked to write a monthly diary for Crash magazine, a prominent video games publication at the time. The diary documented the development of Stormlord. In 1988, Cecco met twin brothers Christopher and Tony West, a programmer/artist duo and formerly employees of games publisher, Domark. The West brothers had started their own development team called Quixel, and Cecco was approached to create a version of the James Bond licensed product, License to Kill. In 1989, Cecco was introduced to London video games developer, Vivid Image Developments. During his time freelancing for Vivid Image, Cecco developed First Samurai, a critically acclaimed game for the Commodore Amiga that was to be published by Mirror Soft. First Samurai was also honoured with an InDin award for best game. Despite First Samurai’s critical acclaim and awards, its sales were dented by the death of media mogul Robert Maxwell in 1991 and the associated Mirror Group Newspapers pension fund scandal. It was at Vivid Image, that Cecco first met producer, Stephane Koenig, and encountered the West brothers once again. The Wests had been commissioned by Vivid Image to develop Super Street Racer, a game which Cecco had originally conceived. In 1994, Cecco felt it was time to move on in the industry and co-founded his own video games development company, King of the Jungle, along with Koenig and the West brothers. With a long video games heritage between them, the small team were soon being courted by the likes of Philips and Virgin. King of the Jungle eventually signed its first development deal with Virgin Interactive, and opened their West London offices near Olympia exhibition centre. The West brothers left King of the Jungle after two years, leaving Cecco and Koenig to grow the company. In 2000, King of the Jungle was acquired by Swedish developer, Unique Development Studios (UDS). In 2003, King of the Jungle closed, and Cecco and Koenig acquired the rights to unfinished King of the Jungle title, Groove Rider. This was eventually published by PlayIt. In 2004, Cecco left the games industry to pursue his interests in web technologies and ecommerce. Games Games developed and published from Mikro-Gen Ltd. Game developed from Hewson Consultants Ltd. Game developed from Vivid Image, Ltd. Game developed from King Of The Jungle, Ltd. Known For Worker Game Company External links * Raffaele Cecco on Mobygames * Raffaele Cecco on Wikipedia * Raffaele Cecco on GiantBoom * Raffaele Cecco on Twitter (Personal account) * Interview RetroGamer to Raffaele Cecco